


Accidental Timing

by Merfilly



Series: To Fill the Void [2]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 21:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4641603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>F'nor is tired, run ragged by trying to support F'lar. And then Canth teaches him something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accidental Timing

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, chordatesrock, for prompting this. Expect one more piece as soon as I can hash it out, at least.

F'nor was tired. He'd been assiduously following all of F'lar's orders, trying to ready the entire continent for the coming Thread. The infuriating part of it was how the Holds were still resisting needed changes. They needed to be cementing stone rubble for paths between the fields, to give an unbreachable point from which to fight burrows. They needed to be clearing their heights of greenery. There were so many tasks yet to do, and F'nor could only be so many places at once. T'sum was not quite as fatigued, perhaps, but F'lar asked much of F'nor and Canth even without their half of the wing.

_Mnementh asks for us._

"Shards, Canth!" F'nor took a deep breath as he weighed that against the need to not offend Fort, the Healers, or the Harpers… even as unlikely as that last was. "Tell him we will be there as soon as I can get away from Lord Groghe and the two Masters." It would have to do, and he tried hard not to cringe at what else might have gone wrong. That nagging feeling stayed with him the entire time he was delineating the Traditional roles of Weyr and Hold and Hall during a Pass to the three, and carefully asking for more from them in the way of manpower and thinking.

There was but one Weyr to guard all of Pern, and that Weyr was flying far too light to boast full wings. His gaze strayed to the silent caldera, visible in the distance, of one of the five emptied Weyrs. Even if the egg-heavy Queen clutched the legendary sixty or more eggs of Faranth herself, the Weyr was still under-strength and those would be drains on resources, not additions, not in the time needed before Fall began.

The meeting wrapped up, with F'nor more optimistic than he had been as to the level of support they could pull from Lord Groghe. Some Fort banners had been among the men Nabol and Telgar had marched with, but Groghe had not authorized it and had stripped those minor holders of their allotments, finding others of their blood to hold the land as punishment. Robinton had privately assured F'nor of that fact. 

"My duty to you all, but the Weyr has need of me," F'nor stated, to decline offered hospitality. He turned on his heel, hoping against hope that all was well. He was envisioning the way F'lar's face grew so lined with his aggravation, wishing in his heart that he could prevent so me of that stress as he mounted Canth. "We have to help F'lar," F'nor told his dragon as Canth launched. Canth, unflappable as ever, took that, the impression of F'nor's need, as his placement.

* * *

The sun was wrong, and F'nor felt curiously light-headed as they blinked into the air above the Weyr, on a line to go to F'lar's ledge rather than to the Weyrwoman's with its spacious conference room. While F'lar supported Kylara, she did not yet believe with the intensity he needed.

"Canth?"

_You wished him not to worry so. I brought us home in time. Mnementh asked for us._

It was too much to comprehend in that moment, and Canth might grow upset if F'nor puzzled too much at it astride. He let his brown take him down, where Mnementh bugled at them from his place on the Weyrwoman's ledge, neck twined with the egg-heavy Queen. F'nor looked again at the sun, then westerly for a moment, even though all he could see was the rock of the Weyr that way, and shook his head before sliding off Canth's neck.

F'nor strode into the Weyr, noting the hides everywhere, the disarray of eating trays and klah mugs, then caught sight of his father's son perusing one of the ancient hides retrieved from Storage. The quiet stillness of that studious pose was broken though, as F'lar jerked his head up to narrow eyes at F'nor. 

"Aren't you supposed to be at Fort? I didn't mean for Mnementh to have Canth return you so swiftly," he said.

"I… I think I am still at Fort, and here now, because Canth …." Words failed him, and he reached out to steady himself against his dragon's mind. There was an odd echo, making his eyes flare, as he realized that yes, there were two Canths he could hear, though the one far from here was muted to him. "Klah, son of our father, so that I might think!"

F'lar wanted to press, but he could just make out the edge of fear behind F'nor confusion, and held his tongue as he searched for a mug among his discards that would do, and for which of the pots held the invigorating drink. It was tepid, but when F'nor took the mug, he swigged it down gladly, sitting opposite F'lar's spot.

"I can hear Canth here… and in Fort," he finally said. "I hated how long the meeting dragged out, worried over what had gone wrong, and wanted to be back here swiftly. Canth said he brought us home in time, and the sun was all wrong." He looked at his half-brother. "If a rider is sloppy about place, they don't come back at all. But to have to worry about time? Or--"

Both men's eyes went large with realization.

"--to use the time to gain an advantage," F'lar finished. "F'nor, if this can be done, reliably, we can set the weyrlings and a teacher back, let them mature, do the same with any hatched of the queen Prideth lays," he said, plotting it out.

"If she lays one," F'nor told him pessimistically. He'd never really believed that more than one queen at a time could exist in a Weyr, given how deeply attached they grew to their bronzes. Even Nemorth had been prickly if Simanith or Hath rose to chase too many greens instead of ignoring them in favoring of escorting her to bathe or feed. He remembered F'lon speaking of Feyrith who had been Queen before Nemorth, and there had been a few years when both had lived at Benden, but Nemorth had been a dragonet, and had not risen for some time after Feyrith's passing.

"I think she will. I keep finding brief mentions of weyrwomen assisting the Weyrwoman, and the context implies riders, not lovers kept by the male riders," F'lar said easily. "Now, we just have to duplicate the process, and then determine how best to use it." He looked thoughtful a long moment, then shook his head. "No, later for that. Now… I want you to get plenty of sleep this afternoon, and then try Ista's record rooms. Bring back the oldest legible ones from there, to see if they have anything Fort's might have overlooked."

F'nor wrinkled his nose, but nodded. "Your wish is my command," he teased, but he reached across the table to clasp F'lar's forearm. "And Weyrleader, as your Second, I remind you to not take a terrible risk with this new trick. We need you, as strong-willed as Kylara is, to actually guide us toward Pern's future. Not dabble in its past."

"Those two things may be entwined," was all F'lar said before chasing his half-brother out.


End file.
